Fliperati

Fortunately for me, my sense about the very first contractor that came by the property turned out to be correct.  I had a whole circus of people come through to give me estimates on the drywall/plaster work and the first guy (let’s call him Clyde) was by far the best of all.  That doesn’t necessarily mean his price was the best (in fact it was probably the 2^nd worst), but he was definitely the most honest, rational and trustworthy of the bunch.  The loser contractors ran the gamut from cheap sleazeballs to eccentric “drywalling artists.”  One of the crazier guys ate up over an hour of my time walking through the house, touching (almost massaging) each wall as we went along taking measurements and discussing the amount of work required in each room.  By this point I really didn’t care to learn every nuance of the drywalling process and simply wanted to hire someone who would do a good job at a fair price. 

Clyde turned out to be the man for the job and I was even able to negotiate a substantial price reduction (although to be honest I probably would’ve paid more than his original asking price to get him on board).  He said he and his crew would start this morning at 8:00 and I couldn’t believe it when his van pulled into the driveway at 8:00 on the dot (he was very punctual when he provided his estimate as well).  They have been working hard all day and have accomplished quite a bit.  The medium and small bedrooms both have new sheetrock on the walls and the wacky closet they once shared has already been split into two neat and clean new closets (in a 1/3 – 2/3 ratio with the larger bedroom getting the larger closet).  I’ve just been trying to stay out of their way, which has given me a chance to get lots more work done outside (would you believe they had put an acoustic drop ceiling on the porch too?  it’s gone now.).

I haven’t discussed this with Clyde yet, but I’m considering asking him to work with me upfront when I find another house that I would like to purchase and flip.  This is obviously very premature since I haven’t even finished the renovations on my first flip (or seen the finished product of his work), but seeing the speed and efficiency of a team of workers (vs. just me) has gotten me thinking down the road a little bit.  If his progress continues at the pace they worked today, then I’ll be able to comment on the finished product much sooner than I thought.